Worth More Than the Whole Shop

He forced a path through the rift between dimensions and stepped into the Dimensional Shop. The place was dim and furtive, and standing in the hush was a hunchbacked old man who would have looked suspicious to anyone with eyes.

"Welcome. My, but you've come at a remarkably early hour."

The voice was perfectly courteous, and nothing more than courtesy. A quiet contempt ran underneath it.

"Honored customer. It still seems far too soon for you to be meeting me."

"…?"

"You're still in the tutorial, are you not? Forgive me, but I suspect a visit to our establishment may be a little beyond you. My goods are expensive."

By any ordinary measure, he was right. Sell every drop that had turned up so far, climb until your legs gave out, and the most you could hope to scrape together was a bronze coin or so. The Dimensional Shop was another matter entirely.

"Our cheapest item, you see, starts at two platinum coins."

At this point in time, a platinum coin could not be obtained unless one cleared a hidden quest — and a hidden quest was hidden in the literal sense. It was not a prize you could hunt down, but a miracle that fell to exactly one person lucky beyond all reason. No one still grinding through the tutorial could buy a single thing here.

He isn't of a rank to be here yet.

The dimensional merchant's judgment was, in its own way, perfectly sound. If you set aside the small detail that the man in front of him was a regressor.

"I've got them. Platinum coins."

"One won't do. Two, at the minimum—"

He said nothing more. From inside his coat came the bright, clean ring of platinum striking platinum, and the dimensional merchant had not lived so long that he could fail to know the sound.

If even one bronze coin were mixed in there — no, even a gold — it would never ring like that.

Which meant the pouch held two platinum coins at the very least.

"W-welcome! Honored customer!"

The voice had grown vastly more respectful than a moment ago.

"My eye for people was sorely lacking. You have my sincerest apologies."

He looked genuinely shaken. Sweat poured off him in a way that did not suit him at all as he apologized to Shin Haneul, and in his eyes, beside the regret, there was open awe.

Even so, this was no place to let one's guard down. Dimensional merchants were not people you could trust.

Because that was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠what they sincerely believed. Until you became a regular, the rule was caution, and then more caution.

Of course, I'm the exception.

Nor was their attitude always a loss for a climber. They did not possess perfect appraisal either, and from time to time they sold a good item cheap. The trouble was that they never told the customer. Among themselves, they liked to think they were playing a fair match.

But from the seat of a man who knew the future?

There isn't a shop fuller of easy marks than this.

Buy only what you already recognized, and you stood to gain far more than from the dimensional peddlers who clung to fixed prices.

I'm sure of it. This is the moment, and this is the place. This is where I said I got it.

An item he could not possibly fail to recognize was here. He went through the shop with care — countless goods, a price tag on every one of them, and the prices truly did begin at two platinum coins.

Some climbed as high as ten, and anything beyond that, it seemed, was not yet on display. No matter. There was so much to look at that the looking alone ate a long stretch of time. He was glad the thing had been hidden. Otherwise he might have spent the whole day digging through dusty junk.

"…I'll take this."

What Shin Haneul chose was a single blade.

Gaudy to the eye, and only Rare within. An ordinary weapon.

For now.

"Hoh—."

In that instant the dimensional merchant's already narrow eyes narrowed further.

This bastard. A complete sucker.

That was the look in them, and of course it was. The plain weapons sitting around it were Unique at the very least. This longsword was a trap card. It was not, under any reading, an ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠item worth two platinum coins — and the customer picks the flashy dud? From the merchant's seat, the match was already won.

"Ahh— what an impeccable item you've chosen. As expected of a man who secured two whole platinum coins at a time like this!"

So this was a victory ceremony. Or a move to lock the win in place.

"Your eye is truly exceptional. I tucked it in among the other general-purpose goods so that only those in the know would take it, and you've found it all the same. And you appear to be a mage, yet you choose a sword — which makes the choice all the more extraordinary. Rumor has it there is a road by which even those without a swordsmanship class may pursue the way of the sword through training, and grow strong by it. In fact…"

The praise ran on without end. He had simply oiled his tongue.

"Yeah. I know."

Shin Haneul answered just enough to be done with it, and paid.

A twitch.

The dimensional merchant fought to keep his face in order, and failed. The corner of his mouth would not stay still. If a merchant that seasoned had come undone to this degree, he must have believed the profit was outrageous. From Shin Haneul's side, it was only funny.

The sword in his hand was no ordinary Rare item. It was merely still sealed — one of the key items that had, in the past, forged him into the Outer God Slayer. Two platinum coins? This was not an object whose worth could be reckoned in so little.

I wouldn't trade this one thing for everything in the shop.

"…Customer. For patrons of rare discernment, such as yourself, we keep a great many items ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hidden away. Would you care to see those as well before you go?"

"No."

"It truly is a place not just anyone may enter—"

He knew exactly which place the dimensional merchant meant. It really was somewhere not just anyone could enter. In a later age, when a visit to the Dimensional Shop had become common sense, that room was infamous as a warehouse reserved for suckers — fools who never learned an appraisal skill and got fleeced down to the soul.

As far as he knew, there was no record of anyone pulling a usable item out of that junk heap. He felt no need to step inside.

"I'm good. I'm already much later than I expected."

"You must! You absolutely must come again!"

He left the dimensional merchant clinging after him in that pitiful way and turned back at once. The hour set for the start of the fourth-floor clear was already drawing near. No — he was a little late. It could not be helped.

This was a time when the Dimensional Shop was not yet properly linked to their side, and the flow of time within was somewhat irregular. Call it the price of forcing a shortcut. What he had gained in exchange was so great that missing the opening instant of the clear was nothing worth regretting.

The whole world, the United States in particular, waiting on his clear?

I already told them I'd be a little late. Anyone who means to wait will wait.

And if they couldn't stand it? They would answer for their own choice, and no one else's. Had they been driven into that choice against their will, it might have been different. He was under no obligation to carry the lives of people who, of their own will, refused to believe him.

It was already the fourth floor. Soon the climb itself would change in a great way, which made it all the more so.

Tower Assault Countermeasures Headquarters, Team 1. There, the team leader sat in his chair and quietly watched the Tower.

Some three hours had passed since the fourth floor opened. By all rights, a message declaring the floor cleared at 999,999 points should have appeared long ago. Shin Haneul had not yet returned. Even so, not the slightest wavering rested on Curtis's face.

It was only natural. He had trusted Shin Haneul — a man without a post — enough to take off his own uniform. And now that same man was EX-Rank, proving with overwhelming results that Curtis had been right. He had said he would be late, and he was late. What was there to doubt?

An hour if he's fast. Three if he's slow.

He simply waited. Not everyone shared a faith that deep. Footsteps crossed the room — steady at first, then a restless rush that would not settle.

"James. Sit down. You're rattling everyone."

"But…"

"That's enough. Sit."

"He's so late, though…"

"It hasn't been three hours yet."

"It's almost there!"

A few of the other members were unsettled as well. Most of them were newcomers, assigned to the team only recently.

"I have, of course, heard the rumors about him. Even so… we don't even know why he suddenly decided to clear late today, of all days."

"And why would we need to know that?"

"Sir? Even so, we ought to know…"

"And who are you?"

"……!"

Curtis let out a sigh at the blank face of his subordinate, James.

This is why the young ones these days—

"But, sir!"

James and the newcomers under him had a case they wanted to make.

"Even without all this, floor 4 this time… people are in an uproar over how unusually hard it is!"

James was only F-Rank, but he was an Awakened all the same, and he had been combing the Awakened community for clear reports without pause. Most of what he found was grim.

The survival rate so far was the worst across the first, second, and third floors combined. In truth, those earlier rates had only stood higher than in the previous life because Shin Haneul existed — but to those who did not know that, the wall of the fourth floor looked impossibly high.

No wonder James, reading post after post like that, had begun to sway.

"Is it really right to keep our affiliated Awakened on standby like this? If we don't gather information somehow, even now—"

To Curtis, of course, it was nonsense that did not merit a hearing.

"If you're going to keep talking, leave my team. This place exists to support him. It does not exist to doubt him."

Shameless trash.

Shin Haneul's very existence had already bestowed countless favors upon the world, and upon the United States most of all. Anonymity was no excuse. Climb the Tower, and there was hardly a soul untouched by his influence — and yet an unexpected number of them still ran their mouths like that. It did not sit well with him in the least.

If any of them are American, I'll have them expelled on the spot.

Tick. Tick. Perhaps it was the irritation climbing in him. The clock sounded far too clear. But a little later, that irritation turned to joy.

Not because this notice had appeared. That much was a given. What truly mattered came the next day, after the time limit on the fifth-floor clear had ended — messages added where, until now, there had been none.

"Good."

Curtis no longer had any reason to feel stifled. Once things stood like this, the end of those who had been trying to climb over Shin Haneul was already decided.